1969-1970

Hon. Betty Weinberg Ellerin was the first woman appointed to serve as an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division for the First Department and the first female Presiding Justice of that Court. Elected to the bench in 1976, she was the first woman to serve as Deputy Chief Administrative Judge of NYS for the New York City Courts. She is Chair of the NYS Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts, Chair of the NYS Continuing Legal Education Board, Honorary Vice Chair of the NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, and Vice Chair of the First Department Committee on Character and Fitness, among her many other activities. She is a Founder and Director of WBASNY and JALBCA and was President of the National Association of Women Judges. Among her innumerable awards are the NYWBA President’s Special Award (twice); the WBASNY Betty Weinberg Ellerin Mentoring Award (established in her honor); the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession’s Margaret Brent Women’s of Achievement Award, the NYS Association of Women Judges Leadership Award, the NYWBA Florence E. Allen Award. Upon retiring from the bench in 2005, she joined Alston & Bird LLP as Senior Counsel in the firm’s Litigation and Trial Practice Group. She also joined JAMS, where she conducts mediations and arbitrations in complex matters. She has three children and three wonderful grandchildren. Justice Ellerin’s late husband Milton was an active trial lawyer and was always very supportive of her aspirations and accomplishments.